


Reading the Signs

by LiraelClayr007



Series: My 31 Days of Ficmas [29]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Communication, F/M, travels in the TARDIS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 11:57:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13213260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiraelClayr007/pseuds/LiraelClayr007
Summary: At first she thinks it’s the Doctor. After all, he does have a habit of leaving things in odd places.***...in which Rose finds the Doctor's scarf in many strange places, and wonders why.





	Reading the Signs

**Author's Note:**

> A sequel to [Learning the Language](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12963351).

At first she thinks it’s the Doctor. After all, he does have a habit of leaving things in odd places.

A few days after their visit to the Frost Fair Rose finds the ridiculously long scarf--the one he’s dubbed “the rescue scarf”--dangling from a high shelf in the library. It’s actually the shelf she’s looking for, she has to push the endless thing out of the way to get to the book she wants. She nearly falls off the ladder; she hooks her arm through the rung in front of her and somehow manages to keep her balance.

The next time they travel the scarf pops up again, this time draped over the mirror in their bedroom. This puzzles her. She doesn’t  _ think  _ the Doctor has been in their room in weeks. The last time they’d slept on board had been during a trip to the beach over a month ago. “We need a proper holiday,” she says to the empty room, all thoughts of the scarf forgotten.

But it appears again and again: hanging from the oven door in the kitchen, tossed over the railing in the console room, stretched out on the floor in a straight line down a corridor.

This afternoon, though, is too much. She tells the Doctor she needs some alone time and heads to “her” room, a cozy little room with soft sofa covered with pillows and quilts and a stereo that plays whatever music she asks for. She walks in, ready to collapse onto the sofa to relax, but stops short. That crazy scarf is wrapped around one of her pillows, all tied up in a bow.

“Doctor!” she shouts down the corridor. She sits on the arm of the sofa, thinking. This just doesn’t make sense. The Doctor  _ never  _ comes in here. It’s not that she’s  _ forbidden  _ it--she wouldn’t do that--he just knows she needs her own space sometimes. She doesn’t go in his workroom, either, not the small one he likes to keep to himself.

“Rose!” the Doctor bursts into the room, eyes wild. “The TARDIS told me I should find you, and then you…” His words trail into a confused silence. He looks her up and down, reassuring himself that she’s not injured or trapped or in other imminent danger, then says, “Is something wrong?”

She bites her lip. “Not  _ wrong _ , exactly. I’m just trying to...Doctor, why are you…” She looks at the perplexed look on his face, and suddenly she realizes. “It isn’t you,” she says. She stands, grabs the scarf-wrapped pillow and hugs it to her chest, pacing a few steps before turning to look at the Doctor again. “Okay. Why has the TARDIS been moving this scarf all over since the day I almost fell in the wardrobe room?”

The Doctor runs his fingers through his hair, then rubs the back of his neck. “All over? I haven’t seen it at all. I was actually wondering if you’d hidden it somewhere, to keep me from wearing it again. You poked fun at me enough when I wore it at the Frost Fair.”

Rose looks at him pointedly. “On topic, please?”

“Right. Well, if I had to guess, I’d say…” He looks around the room, then speaks to the ship rather than to Rose. “Are you trying to start a conversation? She can’t understand all your blinks and chimes quite the way I can, not yet anyway, so you’re trying something else?” The small lamp next to the sofa, which has always glowed a yellowish-white, suddenly blinks pink before returning to its normal color.

“Oh!” Rose sits on the sofa, hard. From the stereo comes a series of chimes, followed by a snippet of the theme from  _ Friends _ . Rose laughs, if a bit shakily. “I didn’t quite get the chimes, but I think I understand anyway. You’ll be here for me?”

The lamp blinks pink again.

The Doctor pulls Rose close, kisses the top of her head. “She wants to learn to talk to you. It may take some time, but if you both work at it...She obviously cares about you, Rose. She used the scarf because it’s what she used to save you that day. She was telling you she’s looking out for you, even when I’m not around.”

Snuggling closer to the Doctor, Rose smiles. “We’ll figure it out. If a shopgirl and a mad alien can fall in love and live happily ever after, I think a time traveling woman can learn to talk to her timeship.”

Softly, the Doctor asks, “This is happily ever after?”

“Oh yes.”

“I always liked fairy tales. Now we get to write our own. That’s...that’s brilliant.”

She pulls back enough to look up into his eyes. “Brilliant,” she echoes, smiling.

The TARDIS chimes her approval.

**Author's Note:**

> 31 Days of Ficmas || Day 29: Scarf


End file.
